The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

*Starred Review* If Bob Woodward's best-selling Fear pulled back the curtain on the willful ignorance and toxic politics behind the Trump administration's brand of federal governance, Lewis reveals the frightening effects such governance could have on the massive and critically important agencies under its purview, including the Department of Energy (think nuclear), the USDA (food security), and NOAA (natural disasters). These agencies aren't abstracts, or deadweight, but are instead as Lewis lays out with characteristic detail, clarity, and pertinence essential in maintaining a safe, fully functioning civil society. As the DOE's John MacWilliams tells him, there are five major risks to the U.S.: a domestic accident with nuclear weapons, North Korea, Iran, an attack on the electrical grid, and the fifth risk failures in project management. Such failures could easily stem from an administration Lewis says has, from the outset, shown little interest in the actual workings of its federal agencies. And so, for example, former Texas governor Rick Perry, who couldn't remember the agency he wanted to abolish, the DOE, now leads it. And the newly appointed Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who, when informed his department, which includes the National Weather Service and the Census Bureau, is a science and technology mission, allegedly replied, Yeah, I don't think I want to be focusing on that. As Lewis concludes ominously, It's what you fail to imagine that kills you. --Alan Moores Copyright 2018 Booklist

Lewis (The Big Short) exposes a less sensational but significant danger posed by the Trump administration's approach to governance. As he recounts in an ambiguously sourced prologue, Trump's transition team actively refused to learn about much of what the federal government does, and made ill-considered leadership and budget choices regarding three obscure, but vital, agencies: the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Commerce. Members of each department in the Obama administration prepared detailed briefing materials to educate incoming appointees about the agencies' missions and responsibilities, only to have their work ignored or discounted; for example, when Trump's commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, was told that the department's mission was mainly science and technology, Ross responded, "Yeah, I don't think I want to be focusing on that." Lewis accessibly explains the important things that Energy, Agriculture, and Commerce actually do, including "reducing the world's supply of weapons of mass destruction," safely disposing of nuclear waste, administering nutritional assistance programs, and collecting data to improve weather forecasting. He also persuasively documents the dangers that result from placing people without the necessary skills in charge of these departments and from cutting funding. This is an illuminating primer on some of the government projects most crucial to the well-being of the populace, and its relevance to readers won't end with the Trump era. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Lewis (The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds, 2016, etc.) turns timely political reporting he published in Vanity Fair into a book about federal government bureaucracies during the first year of the Donald Trump presidency.At first, the author's curiosity about the relationship between individual citizens and massive federal agencies supported by taxpayer dollars did not lead him to believe the book would become a searing indictment of Trump. However, Lewis wisely allowed the evidence to dictate the narrative, resulting in a book-length indictment of Trump's disastrous administration. The leading charge of the indictment is what Lewis terms "willful ignorance." Neither Trump nor his appointees to head government agencies have demonstrated even the slightest curiosity about how those agencies actually function. After Trump's election in November 2016, nobody from his soon-to-be-inaugurated administration visited federal agencies despite thorough preparation within those agencies to assist in a traditionally nonpartisan transition. Lewis primarily focuses on the Energy Department, the Agriculture Department, and the Commerce Department. To provide context, he contrasts the competent transition teams assembled after the previous elections of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Displaying his usual meticulous research and fluid prose, the author makes the federal bureaucracy come alive by focusing on a few individuals within each agency with fascinatingand sometimes heartwarmingbackstories. In addition, Lewis explains why each of those individuals is important to the citizenry due to their sometimes-arcane but always crucial roles within the government. Throughout the book, unforgettable tidbits emerge, such as the disclosure by a Forbes magazine compiler of the world's wealthiest individuals list that only three tycoons have intentionally misled the list's compilersone of the three is Trump, and another is Wilbur Ross, appointed by Trump as Commerce Secretary.As with nearly all of Lewis' books, this one succeeds on so many levels, including as a well-written primer on how the government serves citizens in underappreciated ways. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* If Bob Woodward's best-selling Fear? pulled back the curtain on the willful ignorance and toxic politics behind the Trump administration's brand of federal governance, Lewis reveals the frightening effects such governance could have on the massive and critically important agencies under its purview, including the Department of Energy (think nuclear), the USDA (food security), and NOAA (natural disasters). These agencies aren't abstracts, or deadweight, but are instead—as Lewis lays out with characteristic detail, clarity, and pertinence—essential in maintaining a safe, fully functioning civil society. As the DOE's John MacWilliams tells him, there are five major risks to the U.S.: a domestic accident with nuclear weapons, North Korea, Iran, an attack on the electrical grid, and—the "fifth risk"— failures in project management. Such failures could easily stem from an administration Lewis says has, from the outset, shown little interest in the actual workings of its federal agencies. And so, for example, former Texas governor Rick Perry, who couldn't remember the agency he wanted to abolish, the DOE, now leads it. And the newly appointed Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who, when informed his department, which includes the National Weather Service and the Census Bureau, is a science and technology mission, allegedly replied, "Yeah, I don't think I want to be focusing on that." As Lewis concludes ominously, "It's what you fail to imagine that kills you." Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

Lewis (The Big Short) exposes a less sensational but significant danger posed by the Trump administration's approach to governance. As he recounts in an ambiguously sourced prologue, Trump's transition team actively refused to learn about much of what the federal government does, and made ill-considered leadership and budget choices regarding three obscure, but vital, agencies: the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Commerce. Members of each department in the Obama administration prepared detailed briefing materials to educate incoming appointees about the agencies' missions and responsibilities, only to have their work ignored or discounted; for example, when Trump's commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, was told that the department's mission was mainly science and technology, Ross responded, "Yeah, I don't think I want to be focusing on that." Lewis accessibly explains the important things that Energy, Agriculture, and Commerce actually do, including "reducing the world's supply of weapons of mass destruction," safely disposing of nuclear waste, administering nutritional assistance programs, and collecting data to improve weather forecasting. He also persuasively documents the dangers that result from placing people without the necessary skills in charge of these departments and from cutting funding. This is an illuminating primer on some of the government projects most crucial to the well-being of the populace, and its relevance to readers won't end with the Trump era. (Oct.)